Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (“HVAC”) systems are very large, expensive systems in commercial and multi-residence buildings. One of the parts of an HVAC system that takes up a large amount of space is the heat pump unit. Due to limited floor-to-floor heights in high-rise residential buildings (typically 8′9″ to 9′6″), these buildings use floor-mounted vertical heat pumps. The pumps are placed in dedicated closets, for architectural and acoustical reasons. Such closets must have clear inside dimensions of at least 30 inches by 30 inches, which represents over 10 square feet of valuable space. Thus, HVAC units often pose challenges in building design and require cumbersome, dedicated HVAC closets.
An alternative to a vertical heat pump unit is a water cooled split system. Such a system has two components: a condensing unit and fan-coil unit. A typical, commercial-sized water cooled condensing unit is designed for 3-6 tons of cooling. The size of such units is still relatively large, for example having dimensions such as 40″ H by 31″ W by 22″ D.
Commercially available fan coil units are designed for low static pressure drops. A typical external static pressure drop (ESP) is 0.25″. This creates problems when filters are required or there is a need for extensive ductwork.
Based on the shortcomings of currently available HVAC systems, it would be advantageous to have smaller HVAC units that still had sufficient capacity to be used in a large commercial or residential building.